In the new apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Knowing, said Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times, Nicolas Cage “is a model of restraint in a world wobbling on the edge of disaster.” And the movie “not only sidesteps fashionable explosions, it doesn't give the tidy answers.” (Watch the trailer)

Director Alex Proyas does get a “better performance out of Nicolas Cage than we've seen in ages,” said Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic. But even though Knowing “begins as a surprisingly good mystery with supernatural elements,” it “eventually collapses under the weight of its ever-changing story.”

That’s because this whole movie “seems like it was made up on the fly,” said Matt Pais in Metromix Chicago. The direction Knowing takesis “completely misguided and meaningless,” yet while “the movie's too ridiculous to be taken seriously," it's also "too serious to be dismissed as mindless trash.”